US4343012A - Printer control circuit - Google Patents

Printer control circuit Download PDF

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Publication number
US4343012A
US4343012A US06/221,223 US22122380A US4343012A US 4343012 A US4343012 A US 4343012A US 22122380 A US22122380 A US 22122380A US 4343012 A US4343012 A US 4343012A
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US
United States
Prior art keywords
pulses
print
circuit
output
disk
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Fee Related
Application number
US06/221,223
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English (en)
Inventor
Robert F. Knapp
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International Business Machines Corp
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International Business Machines Corp
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Publication date
Application filed by International Business Machines Corp filed Critical International Business Machines Corp
Priority to US06/221,223 priority Critical patent/US4343012A/en
Assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION reassignment INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST. Assignors: KNAPP ROBERT F.
Priority to DE8181107090T priority patent/DE3164188D1/de
Priority to EP81107090A priority patent/EP0055325B1/de
Priority to JP56146423A priority patent/JPS57128579A/ja
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of US4343012A publication Critical patent/US4343012A/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Fee Related legal-status Critical Current

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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/22—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of impact or pressure on a printing material or impression-transfer material
    • B41J2/23—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of impact or pressure on a printing material or impression-transfer material using print wires
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J19/00—Character- or line-spacing mechanisms
    • B41J19/18—Character-spacing or back-spacing mechanisms; Carriage return or release devices therefor
    • B41J19/20—Positive-feed character-spacing mechanisms
    • B41J19/202—Drive control means for carriage movement

Definitions

  • This invention relates generally to serial matrix printers and more particularly to a circuit for generating timing pulses to control the firing of print elements in such printers while moving in either direction along a print line.
  • characters are formed along a print line from a matrix of selectively disposed dots produced on the recording medium by selectively energized print elements.
  • the print elements can be impact wires or electrodes which cause a change in the color of the recording surface thermally or by removal of portions of a surface layer.
  • the times at which the print elements are energized is critical to align successive rows of dots.
  • the elements are frequently operated in both the forward and reverse direction, and hence timing must be made the same in either direction of travel.
  • Both the indication of direction of travel of the print head and timing pulse generation for the print elements are obtained through the application of a pair of signals produced in phase quadrature to an appropriate logic circuit. Examples of generation of direction signals and timing signals are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,225,251 and 4,195,938. In the first patent, the respective successions of output signals from the two transducers are logically combined to determine direction of motion of the print head, and print element control signals are generated at each edge of each pulse in each succession of pulses.
  • transducers likewise are placed relative to a band of alternating transparent and opaque windows to produce successions of pulses in phase quadrature for purposes of determining direction, but the print element timing signals are generated from only leading edge of only one of the successions of pulses.
  • a primary object of this invention is to provide optical pulse emitter apparatus for a printer which is capable of generating print head timing signals with greater accuracy, is less expensive to construct and requires less maintenance.
  • Another object of this invention is to provide optical pulse emitter apparatus for a printer in which the degree of phase quadrature is not as critical as in the prior art systems.
  • a still further object of this invention is to provide optical pulse emitter apparatus for a printer which is adaptable to a wide range of print velocities without the requirement of dynamic adjustment circuits.
  • Yet another object of this invention is to provide optical pulse emitter apparatus for a printer which maintains the same output timing pulse polarity irrespective of print head direction.
  • a timing disk rotating in synchronism with print head progression along a print line in which the disk has a single band of alternating transparent and opaque areas sensed by a pair of transducers, each providing a succession of output signals which are in phase quadrature relation to one another.
  • the respective transducer output pulses are combined in an exclusive OR circuit whose output is applied to a gate conditioned by printer motion in the first direction and whose inverted output is applied to a second gate conditioned by printer motion in the opposite direction.
  • the gate outputs are used to control the energization of the print elements as the print head moves along the print line.
  • timing pulses are produced at the leading and trailing edges of only one of the successions of pulses so that the phase quadrature relation, while important, is much less critical than in previous circuits.
  • This advantage permits the support block holding the transducers to be molded without neccessity of independent adjustments for the transducers.
  • the use of the exclusive OR circuit is less expensive than the flip-flop circuit generally used for this type of timing apparatus. In printing systems using a microprocessor for control, there is a significant advantage in eliminating the time to set up a detection system for the correct polarity of the timing pulses when changing direction.
  • FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a serial matrix printer embodying optical emitter apparatus constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention
  • FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing the generation of timing pulses from a pair of transducers on the optical emitter shown in FIG. 1;
  • FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of waveforms for the circuit shown in FIG. 2.
  • a serial matrix printer having a print head indicated generally as 10, movable along a print line on guide rods 11 and 12 fixed between side frames 13 and 14.
  • the print head is translated along the print line by reversible servo motor 15 driving capstan 16 about which is wound cable 17 supported at the opposite end plate by tension pulley 18.
  • a recording medium such as metalized paper 19 is gripped between a pressure roller 20 and a feed roll, not shown, and fed upwardly in the direction of the arrow over a platen 21.
  • the feed roll is advanced by step motor 22, supported on side frame 13, driving belt 23 engaging the feed roll pulley 14 to advance the paper line by line.
  • the progression of the print head 10 along the print line and its direction of motion are detected by an emitter disk 30 having a band of alternating opaque and transparent areas 31, 32 near its periphery.
  • the disk is supported on the shaft of motor 15 and thus moves synchronously with print head 10.
  • a molded housing 33 supports a pair of light sources 35, 36 such as light emitting diodes on one side of disk 30 and a pair of sensors 37, 38 such as phototransistors on the opposite side of the disk.
  • Each phototransistor has its respective light source and provides an output signal that varies with the intensity of the transmitted light that it senses through the disk grating during rotation.
  • the two light sourcetransducer pairs are placed at the same radial distance from the disk hub but are spaced from each other along the band of opaque and transparent sectors so as to produce output signals that are in phase quadrature with each other. These signals are then processed to provide timing signals for controlling the energization of the print elements in print head 10 through a flexible cable.
  • the print head frequently is in the form of a single column of print elements that is normal to the direction of print head motion.
  • the elements are selectively energizable to make a mark approximating the element dimensions adjacent the paper during the print head motion.
  • timing pulses are generated at each columnar position reached by the print head during its travel. Since the print head 10 and timing disk 30 move in synchronism, the timing disk marks are able to indicate each column position when the transparent and opaque disk areas are the proper size.
  • FIG. 2 A circuit for processing the output waveforms from the transducers 37 and 38 to generate the proper timing signals is shown in FIG. 2.
  • the output signals from transducer 37 are designated phase A and those from transducer 38 are designated phase B.
  • the output signals are transmitted to respective amplifiers 40 whose output for each phase serves as an input to exclusive OR circuit 41 and to the direction detector 42.
  • Exclusive OR circuits are well-known in the art.
  • the output waveforms from amplifiers 40 are shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b for the respective phases.
  • the output signal from exclusive OR circuit 41 is applied directly to AND gate 43 and through inverter 44 to AND 45.
  • the conditioning pulses for each of the gates 43 and 45 are the direction signals of forward or reverse from direction detector 42 so that only one of the gates will be conditioned to pass the direct or inverted pulses from exclusive OR 41.
  • Forward and reverse signals are determined by logic that senses the succession of signal level combinations shown for the A and B phases in FIG. 3, and determining from that succession which direction the print head is moving. Such direction detection circuits are commonly used.
  • the output signal from exclusive OR circuit 41 is illustrated in FIG. 3c where it will be seen that a positive going pulse occurs with each edge of phase A transducer signal since the exclusive OR circuit provides an output only when either phase A or B signals are solely present at the input.
  • the active gate 43 or 45 provides an output to OR circuit 46.
  • the output from OR 46 is applied as a trigger to adjustable monostable or single shot circuit 47 which, in turn, provides a gating pulse to the several print element driver circuits 48.
  • the waveform in FIG. 3d illustrates the pulses for the driver circuit as the print head travels in a forward direction.
  • Single shot 47 is made adjustable to control the duration of the print element energization pulse, and thereby control the intensity of printed marks on the paper.
  • Control logic 52 gates the characters singly along with a direction signal to a character generator 53 which then provides columnar data for controlling the respective driver for each print element in the print head.
  • the timing pulses for controlling drivers 48 are generated at each edge of the phase A pulses and that the precise time of occurrence of the phase B pulses is not critical since it serves only for permitting both edges of the phase A pulses to be recognized.
  • housing 33 for the transducers need not provide a separate adjustment for the spacing of the two transducers held therein since their positions can be molded within an acceptable tolerance.
  • the resulting diming pulses are of the same polarity. They can be made either positive or negative going, but they retain the same polarity for either direction. This eliminates the requirement in many instances, for a microprocessor to be set up differently for each direction to recognize the proper signals.
  • the transducer for phase A should be adjusted so that it operates on approximately a 50% duty cycle to uniformly space the timing signals.

Landscapes

  • Character Spaces And Line Spaces In Printers (AREA)
US06/221,223 1980-12-30 1980-12-30 Printer control circuit Expired - Fee Related US4343012A (en)

Priority Applications (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US06/221,223 US4343012A (en) 1980-12-30 1980-12-30 Printer control circuit
DE8181107090T DE3164188D1 (en) 1980-12-30 1981-09-09 Printing control device with timing disc
EP81107090A EP0055325B1 (de) 1980-12-30 1981-09-09 Druckersteuerung mit Zeitgeberscheibe
JP56146423A JPS57128579A (en) 1980-12-30 1981-09-18 Printer

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US06/221,223 US4343012A (en) 1980-12-30 1980-12-30 Printer control circuit

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US4343012A true US4343012A (en) 1982-08-03

Family

ID=22826906

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US06/221,223 Expired - Fee Related US4343012A (en) 1980-12-30 1980-12-30 Printer control circuit

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (1) US4343012A (de)
EP (1) EP0055325B1 (de)
JP (1) JPS57128579A (de)
DE (1) DE3164188D1 (de)

Cited By (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4397576A (en) * 1981-12-21 1983-08-09 International Business Machines Corporation Print head actuator
US4445796A (en) * 1982-06-16 1984-05-01 International Business Machines Corporation Print electrode control circuit
US4475831A (en) * 1983-08-12 1984-10-09 International Business Machines Corporation Position tracking emitter for a printer with emitter pattern on lead screw
US4502054A (en) * 1981-07-10 1985-02-26 Ing. C. Olivetti & C., S.P.A. Selective ink-jet printing device
US4533268A (en) * 1982-10-27 1985-08-06 Sanders Jr Roy C Position indicator for high speed printers
US4568951A (en) * 1983-07-04 1986-02-04 Riso Kagaku Corporation Thermal printing with normal and reverse image
US4711591A (en) * 1980-06-30 1987-12-08 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Printer for printing by ink transfer
US4725949A (en) * 1984-07-06 1988-02-16 Supervision Control Systems, Inc. Intelligent interface for electronic cash register
US4752144A (en) * 1984-03-30 1988-06-21 Nec Home Electronics Ltd. Reciprocative typing control system
US4869609A (en) * 1987-10-01 1989-09-26 Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. Method of controlling printing positions in a printer and an apparatus therefor
US5508088A (en) * 1993-09-27 1996-04-16 Braun; Paul-Wilhelm Timing device and method of manufacture therefor
US5650820A (en) * 1987-03-19 1997-07-22 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Hand recording apparatus and movement guide therefor
US6609781B2 (en) 2000-12-13 2003-08-26 Lexmark International, Inc. Printer system with encoder filtering arrangement and method for high frequency error reduction

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE8333945U1 (de) * 1982-11-29 1984-03-22 Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., Tokyo Punktdrucker
DE3918071A1 (de) * 1989-06-02 1990-12-06 Olympia Aeg Verfahren und schaltungsanordnung zur lagesteuerung eines abtriebsteiles in einer schreib- oder bueromaschine aehnlicher bauart
JP2815968B2 (ja) * 1990-04-16 1998-10-27 キヤノン株式会社 記録装置

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4037230A (en) * 1973-03-12 1977-07-19 Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Public Corporation Timing circuit for ink jet system printer
US4176977A (en) * 1978-03-08 1979-12-04 Realty & Industrial Corporation Proportional carrier control and moving mechanism for electric typewriter
US4195938A (en) * 1977-02-09 1980-04-01 Sycor, Inc. Lateral position control means for data printer heads
US4225251A (en) * 1978-01-09 1980-09-30 The Rank Organisation Limited Electro-mechanical printing apparatus
US4285606A (en) * 1974-05-10 1981-08-25 Ing. C. Olivetti & C., S.P.A. Arrangement for driving a printing head along a printing line

Family Cites Families (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS5112218A (ja) * 1974-07-19 1976-01-30 Brother Ind Ltd Sadotaikudosochi

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4037230A (en) * 1973-03-12 1977-07-19 Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Public Corporation Timing circuit for ink jet system printer
US4285606A (en) * 1974-05-10 1981-08-25 Ing. C. Olivetti & C., S.P.A. Arrangement for driving a printing head along a printing line
US4195938A (en) * 1977-02-09 1980-04-01 Sycor, Inc. Lateral position control means for data printer heads
US4225251A (en) * 1978-01-09 1980-09-30 The Rank Organisation Limited Electro-mechanical printing apparatus
US4176977A (en) * 1978-03-08 1979-12-04 Realty & Industrial Corporation Proportional carrier control and moving mechanism for electric typewriter

Cited By (14)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4711591A (en) * 1980-06-30 1987-12-08 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Printer for printing by ink transfer
US4502054A (en) * 1981-07-10 1985-02-26 Ing. C. Olivetti & C., S.P.A. Selective ink-jet printing device
US4397576A (en) * 1981-12-21 1983-08-09 International Business Machines Corporation Print head actuator
US4445796A (en) * 1982-06-16 1984-05-01 International Business Machines Corporation Print electrode control circuit
US4533268A (en) * 1982-10-27 1985-08-06 Sanders Jr Roy C Position indicator for high speed printers
US4568951A (en) * 1983-07-04 1986-02-04 Riso Kagaku Corporation Thermal printing with normal and reverse image
AU569306B2 (en) * 1983-07-04 1988-01-28 Riso Kagaku Corporation Thermal printing system with normal and reverse image printing capability
US4475831A (en) * 1983-08-12 1984-10-09 International Business Machines Corporation Position tracking emitter for a printer with emitter pattern on lead screw
US4752144A (en) * 1984-03-30 1988-06-21 Nec Home Electronics Ltd. Reciprocative typing control system
US4725949A (en) * 1984-07-06 1988-02-16 Supervision Control Systems, Inc. Intelligent interface for electronic cash register
US5650820A (en) * 1987-03-19 1997-07-22 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Hand recording apparatus and movement guide therefor
US4869609A (en) * 1987-10-01 1989-09-26 Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. Method of controlling printing positions in a printer and an apparatus therefor
US5508088A (en) * 1993-09-27 1996-04-16 Braun; Paul-Wilhelm Timing device and method of manufacture therefor
US6609781B2 (en) 2000-12-13 2003-08-26 Lexmark International, Inc. Printer system with encoder filtering arrangement and method for high frequency error reduction

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPH0143637B2 (de) 1989-09-21
JPS57128579A (en) 1982-08-10
EP0055325A1 (de) 1982-07-07
EP0055325B1 (de) 1984-06-13
DE3164188D1 (en) 1984-07-19

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